1,000 Pull Up Challenge - Before and After

My son and I have been doing some pull ups using our monkey bars.  I do sets of ten, he does sets of... actually I don't know how many he does per set.  

We don't go to failure, we aim to do about 50% to 70% of our maximum in each set.  We do a few sets each day and do them most days, and are not really dedicated to it as they are not part of my exercise minimums.  

On the days I work from home my son comes into my room from time to time during the day and asks me to go do pull ups with him.  A set of ten takes me about 15 to 20 seconds to complete, plus walking to/from the back yard, so probably less than a two minute break.  Time well spent.

One day my son came in 8 times, meaning I did 80 pull ups that day.  It was easy enough and I felt fine the following day as I was only doing small numbers.  I didn't 'feel the burn', the next day I felt normal, there was no muscle soreness.  

To build strength, the aim is to train as often as possible while being as fresh as possible.

This got me thinking.  If I had a day at home I could do ten sets of ten and complete 100 pull ups in that day.  If I had a few consecutive days, these numbers would add up fast.  

I had ten days off work over Xmas/New Year, and we were not planning on going anywhere, so I would have access to our monkey bars.  This was an excellent opportunity to do ten days of 100 pull ups every day, which would add up to an enormous one thousand pull ups over the ten day challenge.

Given that most people in this country would not do one thousand pull ups in their life (or even one hundred pull ups in their life) this sounded like an opportunity that was too good to miss!

To keep track of my pull ups I wrote down how many I did after each set on a post-it note.  I had planned on modulating the numbers somewhat, but ended up mostly doing sets of ten.  

Some days my son convinced me to do extra with him after I had reached my daily goal.  That's ok, I would rather do too many than too few.  At the start I did a few sets of 15,  that was too many and I would have been better off keeping the numbers lower.  

Each row were the numbers I completed in each set

I also decided to take some before and after photos of my back.  Some of these I was just standing relaxed, and others where I was flexing.  I was curious to see if there would be any difference after such a short amount of time.

Perhaps ten days is too short to notice any difference, or perhaps the difference would be easily noticeable.  You can find out below.

 

Before the ten day 1,000 pull up challenge: 

My back relaxed - notice the imbalances

My back flexed - before doing 1,000 pull ups over ten days

My back flexed - ignore the weird little scars

After the ten day 1,000 pull up challenge:

Relaxed - imbalances are noticeably reduced

My back flexed - after doing 1,000 pull ups over ten days

After the ten day challenge my lats feel firmer, my forearms feel firmer, my shoulders feel more stable, and I am far stronger, but you can't really see any of that.  

It appears that ten days is not long enough to see a great deal of change.  That's ok with me, I wasn't doing this for visual change, I wanted to get stronger and am glad I completed my challenge.  

Other than being slightly more tanned from having ten days not in an office, you can't see much difference at all.  This challenge was only ten days, so this is not unexpected.

There are some slight differences that can be seen in the photos.  

In the 'before' relaxed photo you may notice that I do not stand straight, I stand slightly twisted to one side.  The 'after' photo I stand slightly straighter.  I didn't know I was doing this until I looked at the photos side by side.  

  

In the 'before' photos my left shoulder is higher than the right due to an old injury.  This causes me a lot of headaches, neck aches, and other pain.  If you look closely at the 'after' photos you may notice that (when relaxed) my left shoulder is now lower, almost the same height as my right shoulder.  Being more balanced means that I am in less pain.  

Less pain is a great result, I'm happy with that!

How many push ups can the average American do

I wrote a previous post on how many push ups the average Australian can do.  I also included average numbers for pull ups, chin ups, and more impressive body weight exercises.  If you have not already done so, please also have a read of that post (spoiler alert: the numbers are hideously low and you are likely doing more than that without training). 

Since then I found a page from a fitness magazine that details the strength of the average North American male.  I found this to be rather interesting for a number of reasons.  

According to that fitness magazine (I forget exactly where this image came from), the average North American male considers themself to be physically fit and can do: 

• one pull up 
• 31 sit ups in one minute 
• 21 push ups in one minute 
• has 17.6% body fat 

That is a pretty poor result for a nation that is so incredibly rich.  With all that money, and all their education, why are they all so weak and unhealthy?

Average North American Male

What makes these results even worse is that they are likely an over estimation!  The above estimates are based off people with gym memberships.  

While the above states that 69% of north americans consider themselves to be physically fit, the Mayo Clinic conclude that only about 2.7% of them really are fit.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025619616000434

While you may disagree with the mayo definition of being physically fit, and you may not agree with drawing these results from a sample of only 4,745 people, you probably can't help but look around and see Average Joe in the street and notice that he is remarkably unhealthy.

The mayo clinic also estimated that the number of Americans who can even do one single push-up is likely only about 20 to 30 percent.  This statistic was based on people aged 19 - 39.  This means if you can do a single push up, you are above average.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/06/push-ups-body-weight-bmi/592834/

Given the amount of North Americans who are overweight or obese (35% are obese, in addition to 40% who are overweight), and the massive health burden that this places on their society, perhaps the old Soviet tradition of obligatory morning exercises (zaryadka, зарядка) was a good thing.  Perhaps it was better than the indulgent and opulent attitude that prevails in current Western society?  

With zaryadka, the average Soviet did strength training every day, no excuses, without having a few rest days here and there, without over eating one day and working out harder the next day, without rewarding themselves for being good by sticking to their training regime, without motivational quotes from celebrities, and without overpriced gym memberships.  Back in those days you did the morning exercise routine, no lies, no excuses, end of story.  It didn’t matter if the weather was cold, or hot, or rainy, or if you were tired, or if you weren’t in the mood.  You just did your strength training, and you did it every day, so did everyone else, and everyone was better for it.  

Individuals benefited from being stronger and less prone to illness, families benefited from being more productive, and society as a whole benefitted from not carrying the massive disease burden that stems from a disturbing lack of fitness in the general population that we currently see in the western countries.  

I no longer do Western style training, I do prochnost' training.  This is based upon old Soviet style training.  I train every day, I have exercise minimums that I have to meet, and I meet them, no excuses.  It costs nothing, and it works.  

Even though I am scrawny, and I only have a few minutes to train each day, I can do far more pull ups, more sit ups, far more push ups, and have considerably less body fat, than the average North American.  I can also do considerably more of these exercises than the average Australian.  

If you are skinny fat like me, then stop working out like a Westerner.  It won't work for your body type.  Stop working out every few days in the name of fashion, stop trying to lose weight and/or gain muscle.  Start training, and train every day.  Start training to increase your strength.  Forget the gym, train at home.  

Two minutes of training every day will make a world of difference to your body.  You will become vastly stronger, you will probably lose fat and put on muscle, and you will be far healthier.  

Prochnost' training - be more!

How many push ups can the average Australian do?

I hate push ups, they are far too difficult.  I do them anyway, and (if you are not doing them every day) so should you.  

I wish they were easier because they are such a great strength building exercise.  They are free to do, they take next to no time, and they work almost your entire body.  I do push ups even though I dislike doing them.  I felt I wasn't doing enough of them, and I began to wonder how many would be considered average.

I have been looking on the internet to try and find the average number of push ups that the average person can do.  This is a strangely difficult question to answer because there are many definitions of what constitutes an 'average' person.  

I have found multiple graphs and tables, and none of them seem to agree with each other.  Most of these results are based on very fit people who obsessively go to the gym, whereas I am curious about what the average able bodied person aged 19-39 can do.  

The other week I was talking to a personal trainer.  Over the course of his career he has seen fit people as well as hundreds of people who are trying to get fit.  He hasn't worked with morbidly obese people, or people with various disabilities that make doing exercise rather difficult without modifications.  I figured his customer base is probably the type of people I was curious about, people with a general level of health and strength but are not elite athletes.

I asked how many push ups and other body weigh exercises that an average person can do.  I specifically asked what the average adult male can do, because that means more to me because I am an adult male.  

I didn't ask about the averages for females, I just didn't think of it at the time because I was curious about myself.  Sorry.  

The fitness trainer clarified the type of push ups I was asking about, he spoke a bit about how obese people tend not to be able to do any push ups or any other body weight exercises, how overfat people tend not to be able to do more than one or two of any exercise, how people can train up to being able to do quite a lot of push ups, and we discussed that I was merely after the average number that the average guy could do.  

As this is the observation of a personal trainer, he is basing these numbers on people who go to the gym as well as people who are paying for a personal trainer, so the numbers are probably a little higher than average.  These numbers are for people are either fit or are on there way to being fit.  

So how many chin ups and pull ups can the Average Australian do?

According to the personal trainer, based on his experience with clients over the years, the average man who is neither ultra-fit nor obese and has no major injury or disability can do about ten push ups.  He also said if you include overweight people in these stats, then the average would likely be about one push up.  

I was surprised by that, I would have thought the average Australian man could do a lot more push ups than ten.  

I started doing 2 minutes of training per day a few years ago, I was able to do about 25 push ups at the time which sounded like nothing but is apparently more than the average guy.  It didn't take me long before I worked up to being able to do about 75 push ups.  It was difficult building up to this number, it took a lot of effort but it didn't take too long because I was doing push ups every day.  

How many chin ups and pull ups can the Average Australian do?

While I was there I also asked about how many chin ups and pull ups the average man can do.  I was told that most people can do less of these than push ups, and obese people and overweight people often struggle to do a single one unassisted.  

That makes sense, I can do a lot more push ups than chin ups.  Most people can do more chin ups than pull ups as they are utilising their biceps more with pull ups.  I agree with that too, I certainly find pull ups to be more difficult than chin ups.

According to the personal trainer, the average man who regularly goes to the gym and/or is paying for a personal trainer, can usually do about 5 chin ups, or about 3 pull ups.  He also said if you include overweight people, then the average would be zero unassisted chin ups or pull ups.

I find chin ups and pull ups really difficult, so these low numbers seem reasonable to me.  That being said, even on a bad day I can do considerably more than both of those numbers, and so can my kids.  I can also do significantly more than those numbers wearing a weighted dip belt, so claiming hat I am lifting less weight is no longer an excuse they can make.

How many average Australians can do other body weight exercises?

I then asked about some of the more impressive body weight exercises such as human flag, planche, etc.  

According to the fitness trainer these are usually considered too difficult for the average person to bother training towards doing them.  They can't do these exercises, nor are they usually willing to work towards them.  Hmmm, that seems odd, but makes sense when I look around at all the overfat people in Australia.

It appears even though I am scrawny I am apparently a lot stronger than the average male.  I can do considerably more push ups, more chin ups, and more pull ups than people bigger than me.  On top of this I can do human flag, elbow lever, bent arm planche, and am working towards some more impressive body weight exercises such as back lever and front lever.  This all started with 2 minutes per day of exercise as part of my prochnost' training.  

You should do some push ups and other body weight exercise.  You should do this every day.  It is free and it will make you stronger.  If you are skinny you should train for strength, not size.  Start with a personal challenge where you complete 100 push ups a day for 30 consecutive days and go from there.  If one hundred is too many, set a smaller challenge.  If you can only do ten push ups, try to do five sets of them throughout the day to reach fifty each day, and build from there.  It is surprising how quickly you make progress when you can be bothered to do this every day.

It is impressive when a skinny person can do substantially more body weight exercises than a larger person.  Admittedly they are lifting less weight, but they are also using considerably less muscle.  When you use a weighted dip belt, then you are using less muscle to lift the same weight, which is even more impressive.  

Do prochnost' training.  Be more!  

Year and a Half of Lucky Iron Fish

Everyone needs iron in their diet to be healthy and strong.  Some people get enough from their diet, while others do not.  

I wrote a blog post of my experience after five months of using the lucky iron fish.  At that stage I had used it almost every night for about five months, and it was working great.   

The lucky iron fish is meant to last at least five years if used a few times every day.  Once the smile has worn off your ingot it is time to replace it.  

I have used mine for over a year and a half now.  During this time I have used the lucky iron fish almost every night, so I thought it a good idea to do another post saying how the lucky iron fish performed for me over this longer time frame.  

Each night I use the lucky iron fish to make up some iron enriched water.  We drink this water the following day, and it adds more iron to our diet.  

Each evening when I am clearing up after dinner I put the lucky iron fish in a pot, add 2 litres of boiling water, add a few drops of lemon juice, then let this simmer for twenty minutes.  

This is roughly how long I spend in the kitchen cleaning up, so it is not a big issue time wise.  I also have a lemon tree, which ensures I have access to free lemons.

Lucky iron fish after more than a year and a half of use

The same Lucky Iron Fish after only five months

Once twenty minutes is up I remove the lucky iron fish, quickly dry it with a tea towel, and put it on the shelf.  At this time it is usually still very hot, so any water I missed would evaporate fast.

I then take the water off the stove and leave it to cool.  Once cooled I pour it in a bottle.  You could add this iron enriched water to cooking, but we drink it the following day.  It tastes like water, but it has iron it in.

While it makes no difference, I always put my lucky iron fish with the leaf side up, that way I will know if wear and tear is due to it being scratched against the pot.

After using this each night for over a year and a half, my lucky iron fish has no rust, and is still looking good.  It had a little rim around the nose end that is no longer there, other than that it looks much the same.  The side that scrapes against the pot in the photo below doesn't even look very worn yet.

Lucky iron fish - still looking good

If your diet is low in iron you could buy iron supplements, or try to eat more meat, or you could use a lucky iron fish.  I used to buy iron pills, and they work for me, I now only use the lucky iron fish and I am much happier with it.

The Lucky Iron Fish is much like any other dietary supplement.  It does nothing if you already consume enough iron.  It works really well if you diet is lacking enough absorbable iron in your diet.  

The difference with the Lucky Iron Fish to taking iron pills is that the Lucky Iron Fish is far cheaper, it lasts a long time, it takes up less space, and is easier on the stomach than iron pills.  

With the Lucky Iron Fish there are no issues if you are vegetarian or vegan, and there are no religious worries for Orthodox or Muslims or Jewish people or any other faith.  I believe a percentage of sale price still goes to fund humanitarian work in Cambodia and a few other countries.

There are a few other brands that make similar iron fish, unfortunately I don't know if any of those are safe.  Lucky Iron fish has been tested, and retested, by many laboratories, on many occasions, and all confirm that this is safe and effective.  

Other brands have not had such rigorous testing, and I don't know where their iron comes from, so I would not risk using one.  

I remember not long ago a shipment of iron was seized at the border.  One of the nuclear facilities in China had been decommissioned, the metal had been sold, and it was hideously radioactive.  A lot of radioactive iron from that source had made it into our country before this shipment was stopped.  While I know that the iron used for Lucky Iron Fish is safe, I can't know about the iron used by other companies.

If you need more iron in your diet, consider trying a Lucky Iron Fish or Lucky Iron Leaf.

Be strong (byt' sil'nym).

Kettlebell swings for beginners - physiotherapist tips

Kettlebell swings are a great whole body exercise.  Kettlebell swings are an excellent exercise for beginners and more experienced people as they build overall body strength and help to strengthen any weak areas.  

I am self taught at kettlebell swings: I have read a bit about them, I have watched a few 'how to' videos, I know things that would be dangerous for my body, I know my body's strengths, I know my body's weaknesses, and from there can pretty much work out what to do and what not to do.  

There are various training programs that encompass only two exercises, kettlebell swings almost always being one of them.  This fact demonstrates how beneficial kettlebell swings can be in gaining functional strength and improving condition.  

As kettlebell swings are so useful in building whole body functional strength and becoming less prone to injury I decided to write a post on how to do a kettlebell swing.  Obviously, being aimed at a beginner, the instructions need to be accurate and easy to understand, otherwise the beginner would risk injury or (even worse) forming bad habits. 

I tried a few times to write instructions, and was always scared that they would not be comprehensive enough for a beginner.

Pavel Tsatsouline Kettlebell swing (picture from somewhere on the internet) 

I found a web site of a physiotherapist who wrote a beginners guide to kettlebell swings.  This particular physiotherapist seemed to love kettlebell swings.  They raved about their benefits, both for rehabilitating injuries, as well as preventing future injuries.  

I saved their instructions for myself to read over if I was wondering about my technique.

Unfortunately I lost the link to the web site, otherwise I would link to it.  It looked like a great website.  If anyone knows the one please add a comment below so I can add a link.  

Russian giryi - versatile strength building tools

An explanation on how to do kettlebell swings from a physio is certainly better, safer, and more comprehensive than anything I could write.  A physiotherapist explaining kettlebell swings for beginners is also going to be better than anything written by an under trained and overly enthusiastic gym goer. 

Physiotherapist instructions on how a beginner should do kettlebell swings:

• With the kettlebell on the floor, position your feet on either side at slightly more than hip-width apart, with your toes angled slightly outward. 
• Bend your knees a little and keep your abs engaged, drawing your belly button toward your spine.
• As you reach for the kettlebell handle, tip your torso forward, keeping your back as straight as you can, while pressing your hips back
• Breathing in as you grab the handle firmly, and with your core still engaged, roll your shoulders back slightly.  This will help control your swing momentum.
• As you exhale, drive your hips forward to rise to an upright position in one powerful movement. 
• Allow the kettlebell to swing forward as high as it will naturally go, usually shoulder height.
• Inhale and allow the kettlebell to swing back down between your legs, pressing your hips back and keeping your neck aligned with your spine.
• Continue the kettlebell swings in sets of 10.
• Remember to keep your torso straight and to power the movement with your hips and glutes.

Giryi are like cannon balls with handles

If you are not already doing them, do kettlebell swings.  Do kettlebell swings every day, no rest days, no reward days, do them every single day.  Some days do light, other days do heavy, and never go to failure.  Kettlebell swings make you stronger. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: doing the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99 percent of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there.  

  

Floods and the local public chin up bar

Our local council has one set of outdoor exercise equipment for the public to use.  There is only one in the region.  It has some of those inclined benches and things that no one really knows how to use, and some of those little fitness steps that people pretend to use, and a few other pointless things that are mostly for show.

There were no dip bars, and no monkey bars (yes adults should use monkey bars).  The one good part of this exercise equipment was a chin up bar.  Strangely enough, the chin up bar was likely the least expensive piece of equipment there.  I had used that chin up bar a few times, I like it.

There are more public chin up bars about an hour drive from here in a different council, I haven't been to them yet.  One day I plan to take my kids to those, but don't want to drive an hour each way just for that so have been putting it off until we go out there for something else.  I don't know why chin up bars are so uncommon, and why parks have phased out monkey bars.  

No one really uses chin up bars in this country.  I haven't seen anyone else use the local chin up bar.  I have a feeling that I may have done more chin ups on that bar than anyone else, and I had not been there many times.  I have monkey bars in my yard that I can use for chin ups and pull ups and other strength building exercises, but there are a few exercises that you can't do on monkey bars and really need a chin up bar to be able to do them.  

There seems to be an irony in Australia where people are not strong enough to use chin up bars, so councils do not install them.  As chin up bars are not in parks, the local populace are not able to train and get strong enough to use them.  If we had more of these things, people would use them more, and if people used them more then councils would install more of them - which came first the chicken or the egg?  

Some countries overseas (usually ex-Soviet countries) have public chin up bars, monkey bars, parallel bars, and other simple calisthenic equipment on almost every block.  These things are very common.  The things average people do on them is nothing less than remarkable!  If you have time take a look at this youtube video and it will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Back to my story, a while ago most of the state was flooding.   The park is near a river and went under flood water.  

The only public chin up bar in the region after the flood

My son was concerned that the chin up bar would have been damaged in the floods.  When the water receded I took the kids to see how the only local chin up bar fared.  

As you can see, it did not do well.  Everything was destroyed, and council roped off the area for safety purposes.

Sadly, I can't imagine council repairing the local chin up bars any time soon.  

First 30 day challenge

After my success in completing the 100 push ups 30 day challenge, my son wanted to do his own 30-day exercise challenge.  

My son wanted to build strength.  The best way to do this for a thin person (or for anyone else) is to choose a strength building exercise, decide on some minimums, and meet those minimums every day for at least thirty days.  The more time you put in the better, but decent improvements can be seen after thirty days.

I asked him to decide on an exercise and a daily minimum.  He can exceed these minimums if he wishes, and he had to reach those minimums each and every day for 30 days.  

Being young I did not want him to do too much, I did not want him to get an overuse injury, so I made sure it was something I thought he could do reasonably easily.

My son decided on a minimum of 20 strict pull ups per day.  I figured he would safely be able to achieve this number.  This amount of exercise was not completed in one session, it was spread across the entire day, every day for thirty consecutive days.  

This isn't western style training, this is prochnost' style training, and it works.  

Spoiler alert: pull ups are hard. 

Before the Challenge

At the start of his challenge my son was struggling to do 3 or 4 strict pull ups in a set.  He probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 3 to 4 with good form.

For the first few days reaching 20 pull ups over the day was killing him, partly because it is a lot, and partly because he needed to do a lot of sets throughout the day when you are only doing at most 2 or 3 pullups per set!

Pull ups, even when it's cold 

Thirty Day Challenges are Grueling

It was rainy on the second day of his challenge, and he had no choice but to go and do his minimums in the rain.  That wasn't heaps of fun.  

A couple of days in to the challenge he was tired and wanted to have a rest day.  He wanted to have a day off and just do more the following day.  Unfortunately it doesn't work that way with these challenges.  You have to reach your minimums each and every day, and you have to do them using proper form.  For these challenges to work you must be consistent.  This isn't western style training, this is different, this actually works. 

Other days he was tired, or not in the mood, or it was cold, or it was hot, or doing pull ups was the last thing he felt like doing.  To quote Pavel Tsatsouline "the Soviet training programs doesn't care about your feelings and neither should you".  My son still pushed through and got it done.  

My son had to reach his minimums every day.  So he persevered even when he didn't feel like it, and he did 20 pull ups minimum every day.  He never went until failure, but he got stronger and his numbers did increase significantly over the course of the thirty days.

Pull ups in the heat

Half Way There

After 15 days he was often doing sets of 8 to 10 pull ups, which is very impressive considering where he started!  This wasn't his maximum, he didn't even know how many he could do in one set because I didn't want him to train to failure.  He could do sets of however many he wanted, but had to stop once his form started to get sloppy.  

Sloppy form does not build strength, sloppy form often leads to injury, once his form degraded he had to stop and rest.  If his technique was starting to fail he would stop, if he felt tired he would stop, if he felt pain he was to stop immediately.  

The progress he made by doing multiple small sets every single day is just incredible.  This was far more efficient than the feel the burn, get pumped, no pain no gain, push to failure, no limits, type of workout nonsense that is far too common in western strength training.  Had he been training until failure he would not have made this kind of progress.

Other than once before the beginning of his challenge, and once after the challenge had ended, he was not striving to reach his maximum.  

Strict pull ups - they do get easier

Results of the challenge:  

My son successfully completed his challenge doing multiple sets of small numbers.  

Thirty days doing a minimum of twenty pull ups per day meant he completed a minimum of 600 pull ups that month.  Given the number of times he exceeded his minimums his total number over the thirty days would have been substantially higher!  

After the end of the challenge I asked him to do his maximum.  To his surprise, his maximum increased from a respectable 4 before his challenge to a whopping 15 at the end of the challenge.  Once again he probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 15 with good form.

That is a massive increase from just 30 days of doing sets of small numbers, stopping if he felt tired, never feeling the burn, not hurting the following day, and never ever training until failure.  You don't see this kind of progress in western style strength training.  

I wish I knew more about prochnost' strength training when I was young.  It is far more efficient and far more suitable for skinny people than any form of western strength training.  Had I trained like this when I was younger I would have been vastly stronger from putting in the same amount of (or less) effort.  

Over the thirty days of his challenge, my son completed more pull ups than most people in this country will complete in their entire lives.  He did this without ever doing more than ten in a row.  

Hopefully my son's success (and incredible progress) will inspire you to give something like this a try.  Decide on an exercise that you can do at home, set a daily minimum, write this down so you can't cheat, then reach or exceed this minimum every day for thirty days.    

Give it a try, you have everything to gain and nothing (other than fat, illness, and weakness) to lose.  Be stronger.

Strength training at Floriade

A few months ago we went to Canberra.  Being spring in Canberra we took the kids to Floriade.  For those who don't know, Floriade is a spring flowering bulb festival that is held in the capital city of Australia each year.  I have only been a handful of times, and Floriade seems to have less flowers and more market stalls each time, but I digress...

When I am around, my kids seem to take every opportunity to demonstrate incredible feats of strength.  Not surprisingly the kids took this opportunity at Floriade to demonstrate their strength.   

It was cold, noisy, and my kids didn't perform at their best, but they still did really well!  

Benches are great for elbow lever

My son found a painted 'Floriade' sign and found a place in front of it where he could do elbow lever.  

Only his hands are touching the ground.  It kind of looked like he was falling into a hole!

Elbow lever - as easy as falling in a hole...

Once he starts he is there for a looong time

I love these next shots, they show how long he stayed up and how he really isn't bothered by people watching (or buggies driving past).

Step 1: begin elbow lever

Then the cart is in view

The cart is crawling along slower than walking pace

He is still holding elbow lever

Still holding - remember to breathe

Finally the buggy had driven past and he could relax

I can't remember if these are the same benches as above, or different ones a little further along the path.  My kids did a lot of strength exercises at Floriade, I only took photos of some of them.

It doesn't really matter, a lovely walk in the park among spring flowers is the perfect time for quiet exhibition of incredible strength!

I am super proud of my kids and impressed by how strong they are.  

Elbow lever looks great off park benches

It's too bad there is a bin in the background

True strength is light as a feather

One thing that people forget is that no matter how strong you are, if you try hard you will eventually fall.  That's ok, just make sure you are prepared to fall, and fall safely.  

Falling doesn't mean that you are weak, falling doesn't mean that you failed, it only means that you are trying hard.  If my son gave up early he would never fall.  He would also never progress.  

Fall, but fall safely.  Safely falling can be a good thing.  

Falling is inevitable (unless you aren't trying hard enough)

My daughter is also very good at these strength exercises.  She wasn't really in the mood on this day so didn't do them as much as my son.  

That's ok by me, I am incredibly impressed by her.

Elbow lever at Floriade

I wish the bins were not in the background

This is far too easy for her!

As well as benches, my kids found some poles.  These are far harder to use, and they are thin and were wobbly.  It takes a lot of strength to be able to do such things using a pole like this.

Both my son and my daughter did strength exercises off these poles.  My younger son's hands and feet can be seen on the left as he also tried to get involved.

Floriade strength exercises

Don't pretend this isn't impressive

You may notice that there are no photos of me attempting to do anything impressive like this at Floriade.  There is a very good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with me being the one holding the camera.  The reason is: I am not strong enough.

I was training to do elbow lever, and bent arm planche.  I started to be able to do them again.  While I was not as good at them as my kids are, I started being able to do them again.  

Then I got hurt and lost condition.  I am no longer strong enough to do elbow lever very well, and am not currently able to do bent arm planche.  

I will do more training and hopefully be strong enough one day to be able to keep up with my kids again.  

If you are unable to do these exercises you should do strength training.  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).  Don't ever 'work out', that is inefficient, if you are to be strong you must 'train' and you must train often.  These exercises build whole body strength, they build functional strength, they help you be better able to do other everyday things, and they help you be less prone to both injury and illness. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: You can be anything you want...but you must be strong first. 

Russian Kettlebell aka girya (гиря)

The Kettlebell, known in Russian as girya, (гиря – roughly pronounced gear-ia, plural: giri, ги́ри) is a simple, effective, and efficient strength training tool.  

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline “The kettlebell is an ancient Russian weapon against weakness”.  Perhaps I should start to refer to girya as a 'weapon' instead of referring to it as a strength training 'tool'?  

In Russia today, kettlebells are still considered as a matter of national pride and a symbol of strength.  In the old days, any strongman or weightlifter in Russia was referred to as girevik.  This indicates just how inseparable girya is from strength.  

Kettlebells look a little bit like a cannon ball with a handle attached.  Modern kettlebells can made from various different metals, or plastics, they can be solid or filled with concrete or even water.  

Girya are used for a host of different strength building exercises.  They can effectively be used for targeting and ‘isolating’ muscle groups, as well as developing whole body functional strength.  

Girya kettlebell

The history of the kettlebell is a little unclear and there is a lot of controversy over it.  

Girya seem to come from Russia and date back at least 350 years, and are likely far older than that.  The Russian word for kettlebell is girya, and the earliest recorded mention of the word girya was in a Russian dictionary in 1704.  Given the (unverified) story behind the development of girya, it is likely that they were used by Russians for quite a long time prior to being recorded anywhere in writing. 

The story I have heard is that girya originated in rural Russia and where they were originally used as a counterbalance for weighing grain.  Back then, the Russian farmers used triangle shaped weights to measure out grain at the markets.  These weighed one “pood“ (pud, пуд), which is slightly over 16.38 kg (just over 36 pounds). 

image from kettlebellusa.com

It would not have taken long for people who were using these 16 kg weights all day for work to develop really strong arms.   

Unlike in the modern western world where importance is placed on being ‘less fat’ or on 'looking good', a lot of importance in Russia at the time was placed on an individual’s physical strength.  Obviously the Russian peasants at the time had no access to gyms or home weights, whereas these grain measuring weights would have been accessible to many people.  So they became a valid option for building strength.  

After noticing how strong the grain sellers were, the Russian peasants apparently started to swing around this weight as their strength training.  Clearly some people would have been injured, while others likely would have worked out routines that safely built strength in ways that they could not otherwise do.  It did not take long for the girya to become the one and only piece of exercise equipment that was available in the typical Russian home. 

Another thing I learned about their history is that girya were used in competition strength sports in Russia in the late 1800’s.  The first competitive kettlebell lifting or girevoy sport (гиревой спорт) was held in 1885 along with the founding of the "Circle for Amateur Athletics" (Кружок любителей атлетики). 

Small girya

From its beginnings, the kettlebell has changed shape a little to make it safer to lift, it can now be made out of array of different materials, it comes in weights ranging from pointlessly small to unimaginably heavy, can be dangerously ornamental with a face instead of a nice round cannon ball, and can be found in every colour imaginable.  Kettle bells are used in large gyms, or at home, and in various competitions.  

While various fads come and go with these, as they do with everything, the staple girya exercises have remained unchanged since well before I was born and are as effective in building strength today as they were hundreds of years ago.

I was once told if you walk into a gym and there are more machines than free weights that you should walk out.  Unfortunately that describes practically every public gym in Australia.  While not every gym has girya, they are becoming more common as time goes on.  

If you don’t have a kettlebell you should consider getting one.  Forget the gym, you can get your own girya.  They are useful in a wide range of strength building for the entire body or for targeting one area.  Don’t rush into this.  Look around and get one you like the feel of because this is going to be with you for countless hours for many years to come.  

If you are new to using giryi you probably want to start with one that is lighter than you think you should.  There are plenty of different exercises that you can use them for.  Once you build technique then you can progress to heavier weights.

Be strong (byt' sil'nym).

Push up fundraise challenge at work

Recently someone at work was doing a great thing. He was doing push ups to raise money for mental health. 

 

He joined some online challenge where he did a minimum number of push ups and people donated money, this sounded like a great thing. I have no idea which charity the money goes to, or if that place is doing anything useful with the money, or how much of the money is used compared to how much is spent on administration. I didn’t really look into it because after clicking on his link I got a bit annoyed.

Before I go on, I want to be clear, these sorts of money raising things can be great and some of the charities are excellent. I don’t want to discourage people from looking into if the money will be well spent, and then participating and/or donating. Look into the charity, and if they use the money well then go for it.

This is a fit and strong guy, he isn’t the usual overfat slob that tends to inhabit a corporate office. After looking at the link I was surprised at how few push ups were expected to be completed, as well as how few push ups he was completing each day.  

The website said the following:

Participants will take on 3,139 push-ups across 24 days in June, putting the spotlight on the tragic number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2020.

These numbers are too low and there are too many days in there to complete the challenge. Why would anyone donate money when someone is barely reaching mediocrity?

Again, let me be clear that I am not discouraging people from doing these challenges or donating money to people who are completing these challenges. The death rate from suicide is far too high, the number of people silently suffering from mental health issues is extraordinary, and the more we can do to help the better. I am not trying to minimise the effects of mental illness. I am purely commenting on how unimpressive this challenge is, and how I feel it should be more to achieve greater outcomes.

If you plan to complete 3,139 push-ups across 24 days, that is less than 131 per day. That is not many push ups across an entire day. It is only five sets of 26 or 27 push ups, which isn’t too difficult for most people to do each day. I don’t understand why doing such impressively low numbers would entice any one to donate any money. If this was conducted over ten days, or even fourteen days, then at least it would be vaguely impressive and require some effort. Twenty four days is far too long as it means so few push ups per day, I think it detracts from the challenge as it is too easy for most people to complete.

The link also had some graphs where this person logged the numbers of push ups he completed each day. To my surprise he even had rest days every week. To my even greater surprise, instead of smashing out the push ups, exceeding the minimums like mad, and then going on to do some more, he barely completed 3,139 on the final day. Other than the days were he did no push ups, he was only doing 100 to 223 push ups on any given day. In my mind that’s weak.

The numbers he completed each day

If you are new to push ups that is not weak, if you are doing personal challenges that is not weak, but if you are a strong and fit person who is publicising your push up prowess to encourage people to donate - then I think that this low number is pathetic. 

 

He should have been doing hugely more push ups! More each day, more each set, and more in total over the challenge. Why barely meet the minimums when he could have vastly exceeded them? He should have tried harder and done something impressive.

I am a skinny person who is not particularly fit or strong. I recently completed a personal challenge where I did a minimum of 1,000 push ups per day for 62 consecutive days. That means I was completing more than their 24 day minimum every three days, and I did this for two whole months without a break. Being skinny means I did this without bulking up, so you would never guess by looking at me that I was even capable of this let alone actually having achieved this.

Now that I have finished doing 1,000 push ups per day challenge I am currently doing a minimum of 250 per day, every day, no rest days. I am doing these in one grueling set, I find this very difficult, but I do it every day without fail. If I were not as strong I would do two or three sets to reach this number. 

I think I was largely irritated that a skinny unimpressive nothing guy like me was absolutely crushing his challenge, yet no one other than me was benefitting from it. Being skinny also means that I won’t bulk up, and if I entered this challenge no one would actually believe that I am completing the numbers that I am completing each day. So there is no point in me entering these challenges as no one would end up paying because they would assume I was lying.

If you are strong or ripped and you consider entering one of these challenges then I say go for it. Don’t just do the minimums though, absolutely crush the minimum.  

The same money will be donated, and you will get more benefit from it and maybe someone else doing the challenge will see your numbers and put in a little more effort themselves. Aim for a day minimum of 250, do more than your minimums, and complete over 6,000 push ups across the duration of the challenge. 

It is only 24 days, don’t bother with rest days. Try harder! Be more!